photo taken by Caitlin Cook

Tyler Barnet shooting a freethrow in the Clever tournament

Throughout the Fair Grove Basketball season, the boys have many scheduled tournaments including the 90th Clever Invitational Tournament, NorthArk Shootout, Blue & Gold, Checotah Crossroads Classic, and the Sparta Trojan Invitational Tournament.

The Fair Grove Eagles Boys Basketball team has played in multiple tournaments within their season. Blake Winterberg (12) explained, “I think they help us by allowing us to play against some really good competition in high stake situations to prepare us for the postseason.”

Bryan Tucker, the boys basketball head coach stated, “Tournaments are helpful to prepare us for our district tournament, which is the most important tournament of the year. Those games are just different and the more opportunities you get to play in championship games the more comfortable you are in them.”

The basketball team does different things to get ready for their tournaments. Tucker explained, “We scout each team we play by watching film and see what tendencies they have and what they run offensively and defensively. We then give our players an idea of how to attack what they do.”

The basketball team scouts their opposing teams to help them prepare for the tournaments that they participate in. Winterberg stated that they scout every team so that they know their competition before going into the games. 

One of the team’s biggest tournaments is the Checotah Tournament in Oklahoma. Winterberg said, “The Checotah Tournament in Oklahoma was a lot of fun because we got to spend a couple days together as a team and hang out and play basketball.”

Tucker added, “Our next tournament is the district basketball tournament that will start in the next few weeks. This is the postseason so everything we have done during the season has prepared us for this moment and this.”

Tournaments can play a vital role in the success of a team. According to Tucker, the Fair Grove Boys Basketball team has won two of their tournaments. As the season progresses into postseason districts, the boys basketball team prepares to take home the win from the tournament.